GMS450 Final Exam UPDATED
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
Project Crashing - CORRECT ANSWER Shortening some activities within a project to reduce
overall project completion time.
Normal Time - CORRECT ANSWER The time necessary to complete an activity under normal
conditions.
Normal Cost - CORRECT ANSWER The activity cost associated with the normal time.
Crash Time - CORRECT ANSWER The shortest possible time to complete an activity.
Crash Cost - CORRECT ANSWER The activity cost associated with the crash time.
Cost to Crash/Period - CORRECT ANSWER =(CC-NC)/(NT-CT)
Which Activities Should Be Crashed? - CORRECT ANSWER One or more of the activities in
the critical path should be chosen to crash. The activity with the lowest cost to the firm should be
crashed.
Resource Leveling - CORRECT ANSWER - When the project is large and contains many
resource over-allocations, resource leveling must be accomplished.
- It is a technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints w/ the goal
of balancing demand for resources w/ the available supply.
- Purpose: to create a smoother distribution of resource usage.
- Aims to minimize the period-by-period variations in resource loading by shifting tasks within their
slack allowances.
- Done by delaying or splitting tasks until the resources assigned to them are no longer over-
distributed.
Activity Slack - CORRECT ANSWER Formula: S = LF - EF or LS - ES
,Pseudoactivities - CORRECT ANSWER - Several projects can be linked together w/
pseudoactivities.
- They have duration, but require no resources.
- They allow a set of projects to be linked and dealt w/ as though it were a single project.
- Individual projects are interrelated by specifying predecessor/successor relationships.
Criteria of Priority Rules - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Schedule slippage: the amount project or
set of projects delayed by the application of a leveling rule. The PM must trade off penalty costs or
displeasure of clients against the cost of adding resources.
2. Resource utilization: the extent to which resources are over or under worked.
3. In-process inventory: amount of unfinished work in the system.
* The min. slack rule is the best overall priority rule according to research, giving the best combo. of
minimum project slippage, minimum resource idle-time and minimum in-process inventory.
Problems w/ Traditional Project Management - CORRECT ANSWER - Additional safety time
should be implemented beyond the work content time required to be embedded within the task
duration to increase the probability and high-confidence that the task will be completed on time.
Problems include:
- Not starting task until the last moment
- Delaying completion of task
Goldratt's Critical Chain - CORRECT ANSWER - Eli Goldratt created critical chain project
mgmt. in response to many projects being dogged by performance manifested in:
1) Longer than expected duration
2) Frequently missed deadlines
3) Increased costs in excess of budget
4) Substantially less deliverables than originally promised
Multitasking - CORRECT ANSWER - Assigning team members to multiple projects and
having them allocate their time across these projects.
- Typically a penalty or cost associated w/ switching from working on one project to another (usually
extends activity times)
, Goldratt's Solution - CORRECT ANSWER - Suggests that the key to resolving this is to
schedule the start of new projects based on the availability of bottleneck resources
- Suggests time buffers between bottleneck resource and resources that feed it.
* A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the longest time in
operations of the supply chain for certain demand.
Two Potential Sources That Can Delay the Project - CORRECT ANSWER 1) Delay in the tasks
that make up the critical chain.
2) Delay in activity feeding the critical chain that results in delay of the critical chain.
Project Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER - A project buffer is inserted at the end of the project
network between the last task and the completion date
- Any delays on the longest chain of dependent tasks will consume some of the buffer but will leave
the completion date unchanged and protect the project.
Feeding Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER - Delays on paths of tasks feeding into the longest
chain can impact the project by delaying a subsequent task on the critical chain.
- The feeding buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out of the
feeding path.
Project Risk - CORRECT ANSWER - Definition: an uncertain event or condition that, if it
occurs, has a positive or negative effect on at least one project objective.
- Projects are all about uncertainty. Uncertainty cannot be eliminated, however, it can be minimized
with effective PM
Risk Management - CORRECT ANSWER - Process of identifying, analyzing and responding
to project risk in order to maximize positive outcomes.
Risk Mgmt. Breakdown Into Sub-Processes - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Risk management
planning
2. Risk identification
3. Qualitative risk analysis
4. Quantitative risk analysis
QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS
Project Crashing - CORRECT ANSWER Shortening some activities within a project to reduce
overall project completion time.
Normal Time - CORRECT ANSWER The time necessary to complete an activity under normal
conditions.
Normal Cost - CORRECT ANSWER The activity cost associated with the normal time.
Crash Time - CORRECT ANSWER The shortest possible time to complete an activity.
Crash Cost - CORRECT ANSWER The activity cost associated with the crash time.
Cost to Crash/Period - CORRECT ANSWER =(CC-NC)/(NT-CT)
Which Activities Should Be Crashed? - CORRECT ANSWER One or more of the activities in
the critical path should be chosen to crash. The activity with the lowest cost to the firm should be
crashed.
Resource Leveling - CORRECT ANSWER - When the project is large and contains many
resource over-allocations, resource leveling must be accomplished.
- It is a technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints w/ the goal
of balancing demand for resources w/ the available supply.
- Purpose: to create a smoother distribution of resource usage.
- Aims to minimize the period-by-period variations in resource loading by shifting tasks within their
slack allowances.
- Done by delaying or splitting tasks until the resources assigned to them are no longer over-
distributed.
Activity Slack - CORRECT ANSWER Formula: S = LF - EF or LS - ES
,Pseudoactivities - CORRECT ANSWER - Several projects can be linked together w/
pseudoactivities.
- They have duration, but require no resources.
- They allow a set of projects to be linked and dealt w/ as though it were a single project.
- Individual projects are interrelated by specifying predecessor/successor relationships.
Criteria of Priority Rules - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Schedule slippage: the amount project or
set of projects delayed by the application of a leveling rule. The PM must trade off penalty costs or
displeasure of clients against the cost of adding resources.
2. Resource utilization: the extent to which resources are over or under worked.
3. In-process inventory: amount of unfinished work in the system.
* The min. slack rule is the best overall priority rule according to research, giving the best combo. of
minimum project slippage, minimum resource idle-time and minimum in-process inventory.
Problems w/ Traditional Project Management - CORRECT ANSWER - Additional safety time
should be implemented beyond the work content time required to be embedded within the task
duration to increase the probability and high-confidence that the task will be completed on time.
Problems include:
- Not starting task until the last moment
- Delaying completion of task
Goldratt's Critical Chain - CORRECT ANSWER - Eli Goldratt created critical chain project
mgmt. in response to many projects being dogged by performance manifested in:
1) Longer than expected duration
2) Frequently missed deadlines
3) Increased costs in excess of budget
4) Substantially less deliverables than originally promised
Multitasking - CORRECT ANSWER - Assigning team members to multiple projects and
having them allocate their time across these projects.
- Typically a penalty or cost associated w/ switching from working on one project to another (usually
extends activity times)
, Goldratt's Solution - CORRECT ANSWER - Suggests that the key to resolving this is to
schedule the start of new projects based on the availability of bottleneck resources
- Suggests time buffers between bottleneck resource and resources that feed it.
* A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the longest time in
operations of the supply chain for certain demand.
Two Potential Sources That Can Delay the Project - CORRECT ANSWER 1) Delay in the tasks
that make up the critical chain.
2) Delay in activity feeding the critical chain that results in delay of the critical chain.
Project Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER - A project buffer is inserted at the end of the project
network between the last task and the completion date
- Any delays on the longest chain of dependent tasks will consume some of the buffer but will leave
the completion date unchanged and protect the project.
Feeding Buffer - CORRECT ANSWER - Delays on paths of tasks feeding into the longest
chain can impact the project by delaying a subsequent task on the critical chain.
- The feeding buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out of the
feeding path.
Project Risk - CORRECT ANSWER - Definition: an uncertain event or condition that, if it
occurs, has a positive or negative effect on at least one project objective.
- Projects are all about uncertainty. Uncertainty cannot be eliminated, however, it can be minimized
with effective PM
Risk Management - CORRECT ANSWER - Process of identifying, analyzing and responding
to project risk in order to maximize positive outcomes.
Risk Mgmt. Breakdown Into Sub-Processes - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Risk management
planning
2. Risk identification
3. Qualitative risk analysis
4. Quantitative risk analysis
